It is estimated that the average smartphone wastes 6.5 kilowatt hour (kWh) a year by being plugged in overnight. While this number represents a fraction of the average American home's annual electrical usage, the number becomes significant when applied to multiple devices across multiple homes. With over 117 million homes in the U.S. alone, this seemingly insignificant figure becomes staggeringly large; rivaling the power consumption of small countries. Once this number is applied to global smartphone usage, it becomes even more evident that the way we charge smartphones needs to be changed. In addition to wasting vast amount of energy, the practice of leaving smartphones plugged in overnight damages the smartphone's battery. When a smartphone remains connected to an external power supply after its battery is fully charged, the performance of the battery declines. Chronically overcharging a battery reduces the battery's lifespan.
The present invention, the power-regulating charger, addresses these problems by implementing a smart charging system which turns off the flow of power to a connected smartphone. The present invention accomplishes this by actively monitoring the charge stored within a smartphone's battery. Once the charge reaches a predetermined threshold, the present invention turns off the current flow. To ensure the user has a fully charged device when the user unplugs the phone, the present invention restarts the current flow to the smartphone battery once the charge falls below a predefined threshold. In this way, the present invention saves energy and extends the life of smartphone batteries.